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The Globalist
Centcom chief briefs Trump on new plans for ‘short and powerful’ strikes on Iran
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Emma Nelson
You're listening to the Globalist, first broadcast on the 1st of May, 2026 on Monocle Radio. The Globalist in association with U. Live from London, this is THE Globalist with me, Emma Nelson. Coming up on today's program, the President has got himself and America stuck in the quagmire of another war in the Middle East.
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Andrew Mullen
You call it a quagmire, handing propaganda to our enemies.
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Tara Kangalu
Shame on you for that statement.
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Emma Nelson
The price of oil tips $120 a barrel. The world braces for rising costs, but the US And Iran dig in their heels. We'll examine the prospects for the region and the rest of us. Also ahead in the next 60 minutes, China gets rid of its tariffs for more than 50 African nations. Does this set the tone for the next two decades?
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David Phelan
Plus, press freedom is at its lowest
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Tara Kangalu
point in the history of the RSF Index.
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David Phelan
But what's causing this global decline?
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Emma Nelson
We'll hear from Reporters Without Borders a little bit later on. Plus, the papers from Switzerland, Apple's financial results as well, and what we learned. That's all coming up on the Globalist. Live from London. First, a look at what else is happening in today's news. The detained democracy leader Aung San SUU Kyi has reportedly been moved from prison in Myanmar to house arrest. The United States Congress has voted to end a partial government shutdown that's affected airports and critical agencies for more than two months. And the German airline Lufthansa says it's searching for an Oscar statue that went missing. On a flight from New York to Germany. Pasha Tarankin said he was forced to check in his golden trophy for his documentary Mr. Nobody Against Putin. Upon arrival, the Oscar was gone. Stay tuned to Monocle Radio throughout the day for more on these stories. But first, another unpredictable chapter in the U. S. Iran conflict opened today with reports that Washington Washington is considering resuming military strikes despite an agreed ceasefire. America's decision also to continue its blockade of Iranian ports pushed oil prices to a new high. With the price of brent crude touching $126 a barrel. Iran has refused to budge either on opening the Strait of Hormuz so where is the next potential handbrake turn going to take events? Well, I'm joined now by Tara Kangalu, who's a journalist for NBC, CNN and Al Jazeera, as well as the author of the Heartbeat of Iran. A very warm welcome back to Mon Radio. Tara, good morning.
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Tara Kangalu
Thank you so much. Good morning to you.
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Emma Nelson
So just explain to us what what has been happening in the last 24 hours in America. There has been a tussle for what happens next, hasn't there?
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Tara Kangalu
Of course. And I think the United States is quite divided, of course, bad ratings for Donald Trump and very much disapproving of his war. And of course, mind you that most certainly he needs extra money. This, this war has cost him over $25 billion to date and very much the Congress needs to add more money if he wants to continue this conflict. And just for context for your listeners, I think just, you know, the budget of NASA is 25 billion. So the fact that this war has cost in two months this amount of money at a time that voters will be looking at the primary election in the coming months and how this would affect their lives. And there's no good sign for Donald Trump. And you mentioned the crude oil at the highest in really four years. I would say that's what people Americans are seeing at the pump. Gas prices have risen over $4 per gallon. And this is affecting daily lives for ordinary American, mind you, that the Israeli economy is also heavily hit as well as of course, an already crippled and shambled economy back home in Iran where we're seeing an hyperinflation. Prices have tripled. And of course, Gulf countries are also being hit and feeling the impact. So no good sign for anyone. But quite frankly, the Americans were most certainly not expecting this because that was not Donald Trump promised them in his campaign. America first does not mean America in a dragged out war in the Middle East.
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Emma Nelson
The thing that everybody has been consistently surprised by or shocked by is the unpredictability of the US Administration's decision. And when we hear reports that Washington is considering resuming military strikes, what do we take to mean by that?
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Tara Kangalu
Indeed, and we very much might see such happen. Also, I want to remind our listeners that just a few days ago, and we might be hearing of the, you know, of this in the coming days, but just a few days ago, Rafael Grossi, the head of iaea, who by the way is eyeing the secretary general of the UN Position that will be open for next year, he did an interview with the Associated Press and he said that Iran's enriched uranium wool is most likely on the site of the Isfahan facility that was hit over the summer in that 12 day war. And I would not be surprised if, if at all, we would see a resumption of military action. We would see some activity around Iran's nuclear facilities. Because again, Donald Trump keeps reiterating and doub down on the fact that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. You saw his speech, of course, with King Charles. Once again, he said that. And so I think Donald Trump wants a win. And the issue of Iran's nuclear program is of his main concern. So how he's going to package that and how he's going to wrap that and how he's going to claim victory, I think very much depends on how he's going to shape the narrative around what he did with Iran's nuclear program. That, quite frankly, is still intact.
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Emma Nelson
Indeed. And this, the fact that the Iranian nuclear program and so much of the Iranian regime is still intact is, is something which the Iranians are absolutely digging down on. Because if you have this unpredictability that's coming from Donald Trump, the Iranian stance has become harder and harder and harder. I mean, yesterday, Iran's supreme leader has demanded that Americans leave the Gulf as the US Blockade continues. There is no sense, still, is there, that Iran is going to buckle.
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Andrew Mullen
Not at all.
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Tara Kangalu
And indeed, yesterday was an important day in Iran's history. It was the Persian Gulf day. And very much the country was celebrating mainly, of course, of the leadership. It was a day when in 1622, the Iranians kicked out the Portuguese. And they were taking the opportunity to essentially send a symbolic message that we want to kick out also the United States and the American assets from the region, telling neighboring countries and the GCC that the reason you're in this conundrum is because you're housing US Assets on your soil. And that has long been one of the demands of the Iranian regime, by the way. And also worth again reminding our listeners that the regime in Iran has not changed, it is only reshuffled. And those in charge are, quite frankly, some of the most hardliners that there ever were, people who did not want engagement with the West. And they are ready to fight. And in this fight, they are willing to take the region down with them. Also worth remembering that Iran's, the Iranian regime's threshold for pain is much higher than that of the gcc, but also the United States. So they're not going to give in. They're not going to budge. But I think we're at a Stalemate in this stall of diplomacy where both sides are waiting to see who blinks first. And quite frankly I don't think that would be Iran because Iran wants to get maximum concession. They see the United States maximalist demands as a surrender manifesto and they don't want to succumb to that. And I think they've, they put a good fight of course, according to the regime. And you know, they've survived. Let's again remember their main objective is to survive. Donald Trump has different objectives. None of them have been achieved.
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Emma Nelson
One of the main questions that needs to be asked is how does the rest of the world react to all this? Because yesterday we saw the price of brent crude tipping $126 a barrel, first time, the highest since the Russian full scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022. And we've just got the world's biggest producers of fertilizer that says interruption to supply and production is actually now going to jeopardize global food production. How much do you think this could influence the Americans decision as to how, as to how to go forward?
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Tara Kangalu
One of the things that I was thinking about yesterday, Emma, was the fact that the United States cut a lot of its budget, aid budget, if you remember, dismantling U.S. aid and quite frankly reducing a whole lot of its global aid to in need countries. So the first thing that we have to keep in mind is that right now we're in a situation where some of the most in need and vulnerable countries and populations in the world will be affected. And then when we have a rise in energy prices, the next thing is the rise in food prices and then comes inflation. The other thing I would say is that we're seeing a reordering and reblocking of that entire region of the Middle East. And we saw also just a few days ago that the UAE left opec. Of course this is not the first time that that one of the member countries leaves OPEC. Qatar did in 2019 and of course you remember 2017 blockade of Saudi Arabia over Qatar. So this is also bringing to light the diffraction between the GCC countries. Right. UAE is responsible for 12% of OPEC's output. And so we will see a day when the dust settles in this conflict that the Gulf countries again responsible for much of the global energy production. Looking at new security arrangements, the UAE is of course part of Donald Trump's Abrahamic Accords with ties to Israel and of course close alliance to India. All the while, Saudi Arabia never joined the Abrahamic Accords. And we know that China is trying to move in where they see us being essentially weakened. And I've been saying this, I think so much of what will become of this war, Emma, would be seen in Beijing in just two weeks when Donald Trump will meet with Xi Jinping. I always said that the route to Iran's oil does not go through Tehran, but rather through Beijing because for long China has been the main buyer of 90% of Iran's oil at a heavily discounted price they pay in their currency and also crypto and the United States. And again, Donald Trump said over and over he wants Iran's oil. And I think what comes next in Beijing would be quite telling of how this reordering and reblocking of that entire region would take shape and of course, the impact that it would have on the energy market and therefore the food prices and inflation that would affect everyone around the world, really.
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Emma Nelson
Tara Kangalu, journalist for NBC, CNN and Al Jazeera, as well as the author of the Heartbeat of Iran. Thank you so much for joining us. On Monocle Radio, It's what, 8, it's nudging 8:12am In Cape Town, which is where we head next. It's been described as an economic game changer for almost an entire continent. From today, May 1, China implements zero tariffs on imports from 53 African countries. With diplomatic relations, the expectation is of better market access and better trade. But what is the long term strategy of Beijing here? Well, I'm joined now by Christopher Ediegoo who's lead analyst at Africa Risk Consulting. He joins me on the line from Cape Town. Good morning, Chris.
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Christopher Ediego
Good morning, Emma. And thank you so much for having me today.
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Emma Nelson
A pleasure. Now we have what, 53 countries out of how many, not many more countries in Africa the last time I counted. Who's in the list and who's out?
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Christopher Ediego
Yes. So there's about that this trade deal includes all African countries but Eswatini, which is the only African country that does not have diplomatic relations with China. So essentially all the continent but Eswatini
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Emma Nelson
and what explain to us just how this new, this new tariff system will work.
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Christopher Ediego
Yes. So this, this deal is actually quite a very big deal. So what it means is that all 53 Africa, I mean the 53 African countries that have trade relations with China or diplomatic relations with China will have tariff free access to the Chinese market, which is quite a huge deal. But I must emphasize that it's not and it's not really out the blue. It's something China has been working on for a while, since 2005, China has been gradually reducing tariffs on African goods. And at falkac, which is the highest level of, or the highest platform of China, Africa engagement. At Folkac 2024, China granted 33 African countries access to the Chinese market. So this new, this new deal is an extension of that policy. So while it's quite a big and big deal and big opportunities, something China has been working on for a while and something that African governments have been asking China for, so African governments at least at the moment, expressed their appreciation of China's approval of this policy. I mean, South Africa said it's a fantastic opportunity. Kenya said it offers infinite opportunities. So generally it's been well welcomed, well approved of up in Africa.
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Emma Nelson
It's a very clever move by Beijing though, isn't it? Because in a moment when America is upping its tariffs and closing doors, China arguably sees a very good, very long term prospect here that in 10, 20 years time, any rivalry to Chinese economic influence is going to be unassailable.
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Christopher Ediego
Yes, that's actually a very, very good point. And this deal in the long run gives China strategic advantage over the US and other Western countries. And as you said, the context is particularly important because it comes at a time where Africa is not really seen as a priority in Western governments. As you, you've mentioned, the US has enacted, I mean enacted tariffs against African goods. It cut agoa, which is its signature trade deal with Africa, and then suspended it and now it has extended it for one year and should expire at the end of this year. So you're seeing all these restrictions being put up by Western governments. On the other hand, China is, I mean, allowing 53 African governments to trade freely with it. So optics matter quite a lot in this situation. And I think as the years go by, more and more African governments will trade with China which will give it a strategic advantage over Western governments which are seen as being more restrictive on Africa.
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Emma Nelson
Tell us a little bit more about the restrictive areas on Africa when it comes to its ability to trade with other parts of the world. And we just briefly touched on this. But will these very, very favorable agreements between the 53 countries and China effectively disbar nations from individually working with other countries? I mean, many people are just suggesting that the trade with America is going to, is effectively going to shrivel up.
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Christopher Ediego
Yes, I think China already, China already has, I mean, first of all, in terms of restrictions, first of all, the AGOA was suspended, which has China's US Free trade agreement with Africa that already caused a bit of economic chaos. In some countries, such as Lesotho, which depend a lot in the American market. And then you compare it with what China is doing, opening up its market. At the same time, US Cut US aid, which provided a lot of aid for African initiatives, for example, in health. And so there's been this viewpoint that Africa is really not a priority for the continent, but also in terms of trade. China has already been Africa's largest trading partner for a very long time, since 2009. And last year trade between Africa and China was about 348 billion. If you compare that to the US it's about $88 billion. So you can already see that China already has an advantage over the US And I think in the long term, I think this engagement is definitely going to increase. And unless the US Opens up and increases opportunities for engagement with Africa, I think China is only going to build up more and more of an advantage. But in terms of this agreement with Africa, I must emphasize that Africa's trade with China is mainly in raw materials or resources. So while China exports finished products to the continent, Africa exports to China mainly natural resources. And this has created a big trade deficit in China's favor. So last year, from 349 billion trade between Africa and China, there's about $100 billion deficit in China's favor. So while African countries will be able to export more goods to the continent, a lot of this is demanding resources in natural resources. And there's only so much of that deficit you can cut with raw resources, which is why you're seeing a lot of African governments also pushing China to, to take in or to buy more finished products from the continent.
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Emma Nelson
Christopher Ediego, lead analyst at Africa Risk Consulting, joining me on the line from Cape Town. Thank you. Still to come on today's program, we
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Andrew Mullen
have long since learned and were indeed reminded again this week that the FBI has loads of time for this kind of thing, as actual threats to the President of the United States are famously unheard of.
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Emma Nelson
Andrew Muller will bring us what we learn. Stay tuned. To the globalist.
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Emma Nelson
It's 8:19 in Zurich, which is where we head now for today's newspapers. Joining Me on the line is Guarana Gurgic Monocle Security correspondent. Good morning, Gurana. How's Ciric looking this morning?
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Garana Gurdich
Well, the skies are all clear. Everything is just blue as far as your eye can see. So you know, like that song, on a sunny day you can see forever. So it seems like it's like this for this long weekend here.
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Emma Nelson
Happy days. It is the long weekend in Switzerland and in many, many places across the, across the world because it is the May Day weekend. Happy May Day to you when it, when it all happens. Let's have a look at some slightly less positive figures coming out of the United States. Just explain to us if you can, the degree of US national debt. This is an article in the Wall Street Journal that's brought our attention to this.
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Garana Gurdich
That's exactly right. So US has just crossed a major financial threshold, which is that it's national debt now exceeds the size of the entire economy. So the debt has surpassed 100% of GDP. And, and what this means in practical terms is basically that the United States these days owes more than it produces in a year. So about 31 trillion in debt versus roughly now the same in annual economic output. And so for every basically $1 that the US government, the federal government brings in, it spends about 1.33 annually. So annual deficits are about 6% of the GDP, which now starts making the United States part of these different charts where, you know, usually we have countries from Japan to Greece, Italy and France feature, you know, that are having these high debt to GDP ratios. And of course then the questions are how sustainable that is moving forward.
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Emma Nelson
Indeed, I mean, the Wall Street Journal is saying the government is spending $1 cents, 30, 33 cents for every dollar it collects in revenue. The amount of stress that is now being felt on the United States as a result of this is what?
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Garana Gurdich
Well, this is a conflation of different sort of factors. So some would say, look, there's a war going on. And of course there's been a lot of these tax cuts also under the Trump administration. But it's not just one thing. And this is what economists are largely in unison to say. This is not a short term spike. We've seen this trend sort of creep up over time because it reflects a sort of deeper structural issues that are underlying it. So everything from aging populations, of course this is a Social Security question in the United States, that's a highly vexed issue. But then also rising healthcare costs and again the political reluctance to either raise taxes or cut spending. If anything, a lot of the proposals for the new budget are again seeing a ballooning rather than necessarily this sort of fiscal hawkishness.
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Emma Nelson
Let's move on to a brilliant article in the New York Times about how a group of people, I think the director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasian Centre based in Berlin, played a game where they tried to see what would happen if Russia tried to mount some sort of military operation against Germany.
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Garana Gurdich
That's right. So Sasha Gabuev out of Berlin's office of Carnegie was one of the participants in this war gaming exercise which is now part and parcel of basically what any serious think tank does in the sort of program on foresight and forecasting the future developments of European security. And what he did was spend an op ed for the New York Times where he, he basically refers to this particular war game simulation and concludes that the most dangerous period may still lie ahead when it comes to Europe Russia relations. And it is quite a striking article. He was on the Russia team. He was actually playing Putin. And this particular scenario that he took part in looked at October of this very year, midterms approaching in the United States, States, US basically deciding not to act and react to what seemed to be a kind of a humanitarian kind of escalation of presence of Russian troops in Kaliningrad and this spilling over then into Lithuania, NATO unity breaking and basically NATO being faced with a major crisis that tests alliance in a way that actually almost breaks it.
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Emma Nelson
So what bigger lessons are being learned from games like this? I mean, you mentioned the fact that NATO is tested hard.
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Garana Gurdich
Well, what we are seeing time and again these days is this sort of talk of what is the future of NATO without the United States necessarily playing this major coordinating role and basically basically underwriting European security. Who is going to step into this void and vacuum? And there are a lot of questions over how the European pillar of NATO, this is the sort of talk that is now the talk of the town in a lot of European capitals is going to look like. So who would actually provide some of these critical, not just leadership capabilities, but real hard sort of assets and whether there would be the swiftness in decision making to actually respond to Russia's provocations. And what Kabuev says is that basically Putin's motivations and kind of calculus hasn't changed that. What made him go into Ukraine and launch that full scale invasion in 22 was this perception of Western disunity and that he might actually well use it this time around because if anything, the risks in the transatlantic relations haven't decreased, but rather have increased quite Starkly over the past year and a half.
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Emma Nelson
Okay, let's move to another story in the New York Times, but widely reported globally is the first commercial flight, the first direct US Commercial flight for seven years has landed in Venezuela. This is a big step for Venezuelans, isn't it?
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Garana Gurdich
This is a major sort of breakthrough, the way that New York Times puts it, that this is more than just a flight, that this is actually a sort of a symbol of future prosperity to come, this commercial flight from Miami over to Caracas. So since basically 2019, all of the flights between the two countries were halted, of course, amid all the rising political tensions and security concerns. Now, four months after Maduro's ouster, we see that we have a lot more of discussions, but also some concrete steps towards economic reopening, renewed trade, and most of all, reconnecting families, which is what this particular story in the NYT also suggests. So basically, there's a lot of optimism that a lot more flights will follow, and there are plans to expand services with expectations now of tens of thousands of passengers annually. But at the same time, there's a lot of cautious optimism. So Venezuela's political system is still fragile. There are concerns about governance, about human rights, and what will follow now under this Rodriguez government that seems to cooperate, at least for the moment, with the Trump administration.
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Emma Nelson
Quick look finally at the way that the Saudis are deciding to spend their money. They've withdrawn from live golf, which effectively sort of drew everybody to Saudi Arabia from the professional golfing world, and now it's decided to drop it. There's a wider sense, isn't there, that Saudi is watching the pennies?
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Garana Gurdich
That's right. So another change of times, I think. Like, we have this sort of a theme running through all of the stories. So the Kingdom Sovereign Wealth Fund, the Public Investment Fund, has now said that it's making some of the major strategic shifts from what we've seen over the past couple of years. So it's less about splashiness when it comes to global sports. And, you know, this has always been a kind of point of contention, whether it's sports washing and, you know, how to think about all these investments. But in general, these days, they're saying it's going to be much more about financial discipline and domestic economic priorities. Also, one thing that's worth, worth mentioning is that lift golf wasn't necessarily the most profitable thing out there. So, you know, the challenge to the PGA Tour has been allegedly losing hundreds of millions annually and struggling to build some sort of steady, stable audience. But there are also larger concerns over some of the other promises that Saudis have made in terms of funding for other sports, whether it's soccer or tennis or even, you know, Dakar rally. So, yeah, there, there are a lot of questions swirling around. There were also talks that Saudi Arabia might host Summer Olympics, maybe in late 30s. Now, all of these things are coming under a big question mark.
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Emma Nelson
Garana Gurdich, Monocle security correspondent joining us on the line from Zurich.
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Louise Alain Bichet
Thank you.
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Emma Nelson
You're listening to THE Globalist. Now a quick look at some of the other stories we're following today. The detained democracy leader Aung San SUU Kyi has reportedly been moved from prison in Myan, Myanmar, to house arrest. State media broadcast what it claimed was the first image of Ms. Suu Kyi for five years. But her son says there's still no sign his mother is still alive. The US Congress has voted to end a partial government shutdown that's disrupted airports and critical agencies for more than two months. The House of Representatives approved funding for most of the Department of Homeland Security. A rally has taken place in the Turkish city of Istanbul to protest against the seizure by the Israeli military of aid ships heading for Gaza. Earlier, Israel handed over to the Greek government more than 170 pro Palestinian activists it was holding. And the German airline Lufthansa says it's searching for an Oscar statue that went missing on a flight from New York to Germany. Pasha Talankin said he was forced to check in the golden trophy for his documentary Mr. Nobody Against Putin. And upon arrival, the Oscar was gone. Lufthansa says their team is treating it with care and urgency as it looks for the statue. This is THE globalist. Stay tuned. 8:30 in Paris. 7:30 here in London. Now the level of press freedom has fallen across the globe to its lowest point in a quarter of a century. The decline is reported in this year's annual World Press Freedom Index by the organization Reporters Without Borders. Its project director, Louise Alemann Bichet joins me from Paris. Good morning, Louise.
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Louise Alain Bichet
Good morning.
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Emma Nelson
So could you just outline what press freedom actually is and how it is being eroded?
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Tara Kangalu
Yes.
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Louise Alain Bichet
Well, press freedom, as RSF hears it, is basically the level of protection of journalists, obviously, but the protection of journalism itself. And it's, well, the right to information that we collectively hold as citizens in every country of the world. So we monitor it, indeed, in a yearly index that we publish every May. And this press freedom is monitored through five main indicators with more than 130 questions. And we monitor the legal, economical, political, social and security environment for Journalists and press freedom.
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Emma Nelson
And this year it is the worst in a quarter of a century.
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Louise Alain Bichet
Yes, definitely. The average score has never been so low in the 180 countries that we surveyed. And we can say also that over half of the world countries now fall into what we call the difficult or very serious categories for press freedom. And the main reason actually is the legal indicator that I was referring to, which has declined the most over the past year. And it's a clear sign that journalism is increasingly criminalized worldwide.
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Emma Nelson
Where are the worst points? I mean, are they the usual spots which we would imagine, which is in places with a major democratic deficit?
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Louise Alain Bichet
Well, maybe to be very specific, with countries, the five countries that has shown the greatest declines are the Niger, for example, Georgia as well, who has been marked by a violent repression of protests in 2025. We have also Ecuador, Sierra Leone, Saudi Arabia. These are maybe the five countries with the, with the greatest declines.
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Emma Nelson
And explain to us what, where the, the, where perhaps the United States might fit in here because we have seen a decline in the, in, in press freedom in the United States or even a position perceived sense that there's a sense of press freedom declining. When you have a country which is, you know, the land of the free and it is no longer that place where you can indeed speak your mind without, without some sort of retribution, official or unofficial, what message does that send out to the rest of the world?
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Louise Alain Bichet
Yeah, that's true, that it's just to go back to the US Top seven, seven places, seven spot, which is a huge drop also in a year. Of course it's, I mean, Donald Trump has waged a war on press freedom. So of course that affects everyone on the, I mean every indicators that I've listed before and he has been clearly attacking journalists, defunding also public media targeting reporters or meddling also in media business deals. So revoking access also to the press, freedom to the press, journalists, government, in government buildings. So as you said, I mean, it's clearly a sign for the whole world. And this decline in the press freedom that we see all over the world is also affecting democratic countries. When we talk about the legal indicators, for example, we talk about the fact that even in democratic countries you would see, for example, abusive use of national security laws or anti terrorism laws, for example, that are used against journalists. We also see a lot in democratic countries the use of slabs. So the slabs is the strategic litigation against public participation, which means basically the gag lawsuits to exhaust journalists, either financially or psychologically exhausting journalists. So we see that a lot in democratic countries. So that also explains part of the huge decrease.
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Emma Nelson
Do we see any areas of positivity here, any countries moving up the line? And indeed, looking at countries which in the past have experienced an erosion of press freedom, I'm thinking in particular of Hungary, now that we have the departure of the prime minister, Viktor Orban, and the sense that, or rather a hope that press freedom will open up and improve. When you see the departure of someone like Viktor Orban, does it make you think actually, then we do have a chance for a touch of optimism?
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Louise Alain Bichet
Yeah, of course, that's totally the case. Well, obviously we'll see that next year because the early index is referring to 25, although we can update if there is a huge major change before May. So we'll see that next year. Of course, this is very positive. However, when it's coming to reforming national law or legal framework, of course, it takes time. I'm also thinking about, I mean, in terms of greatest improvement this year. Of course, we have to talk about Syria because it's by far the country with the biggest improvement in 26, of course, following the fall of Al Assad in December 24th. And it's a political transition. The media landscape still needs to be rebuilt. Of course, the press freedom, just to be clear, remains very serious in Syria. But it's a huge, huge, it's a huge improvement. There is somehow a will to make it better. So, yeah, of course, there are reasons to be positive and optimistic.
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Emma Nelson
So in that context, if you were a young person nowadays and you were deciding whether you were wanting to be a journalist, would you actually go into this profession nowadays?
- [37:40]
Louise Alain Bichet
That's a good question. I think that the world has never been or not that high a need of independent, reliable information. So, yes, this is true. This profession and this job is extremely risky. As we said in the beginning, it's very much criminalized. You can be specifically targeted, especially in the front lines in Ukraine, in Gaza, we see systematic targeting of journalists. So, yes, this is very dangerous. But it has never been so needed for again, our collective rights to be rightly informed.
- [38:26]
Emma Nelson
Thank you so much for joining us. On the line from Paris. That was Louise Alain Bichot, who's a project director at Reporters Without Borders. You're listening to Monocle Radio. It's time now for a weekly roundup of an alternative nature. Here's what we learned.
- [38:57]
Andrew Mullen
We learned this week of further depths to the depravity of former FBI Director James Comey. Well, quite. And to think he was once here at Midori House to record episode 201 of the Big Interview Interview. Honestly had no idea of the risk we were running allowing such a vicious miscreant into the building.
- [39:19]
Emma Nelson
I was investigated repeatedly. I had the Internal Revenue Service, our tax collector, perform on me the most intrusive audit that there is. Someone said it's like an autopsy without benefit of death, and at the end of that they owed me $347. Turns out I had overpaid my taxes.
- [39:36]
Andrew Mullen
We learned anyway that Comey was to be indicted once again by the U.S. department of justice over seashells, Though he did not seem to us like someone with a guilty conch ence. No, but seriously, we learned that it is an extremely grave matter and in no respect and by no means just incredibly stupid.
- [40:03]
Emma Nelson
In 2020, Comey posted cool shell formation on my beach walk. The numbers 8, 6, 47 arranged on sand, interpreted by some as an old slang term 86 for get rid of and 47 referring to the president.
- [40:19]
Andrew Mullen
We learned further from Comey's successor as America's top cop and sentient thousand yard stare, Kash Patel, that in making this important and above all necessary case, his G men had labored long and diligently. As the Attorney General indicated, this has been a case that's been investigated over the past 9, 10, 11 months. These cases take time. Our investigators work methodically. So we learned that the Feds had spent the thick end of a year gazing at an Instagram picture of assorted mollusks, determined to see in them evidence that their old boss's recent reinvention as a crime novelist was in fact a devious diversion from his real plans to become a 21st century John Wilkes Booth. Which all sounds terrifically plausible. Still, we have long since learned and were indeed reminded again this week that the FBI has loads of time for this kind of thing, as actual threats to the President of the United States are famously unheard of. But sticking with the subject of total wastes of every everyone's time, Yes, we learned that it was once again European seagull screeching. Championship week seems to come round earlier every year. Am I right? We learned that this year's iteration of the contest had been held once again in the Belgian settlement of D', in, possibly pronounced de Panur, but really, who cares? Otherwise renowned for nothing at all, more than 70 contestants faced off at a Belgian pub to decide who can best mimic the bird's distinctive shriek. Competitors from 15 countries apparently took part
- [42:04]
Emma Nelson
in the sixth edition of the event. They've been doing this for years.
- [42:07]
Andrew Mullen
Indeed, they have you might even say they've flocked there. And indeed grateful we here we are once again for an easy couple of minutes of silly clips and leaden sneering escalating to some or other seabird related pun by way of payoff, you might say that one good tern deserves another. Anyway, we learned that this year's European Seagull Screeching Champion was one Karine Gronholtz of Oslo, who might be one of these. Whatever. We learned, if we're honest, that actually this year the European Seagull Screeching Championship was not optimally timed for this. The what we Learned news review on Monocle Radio because it was only last week that we fired off pretty much all our seabird related material on that bloke running for Parliament in Scotland dressed as a gannett. We've kept that clip though. Good to know for next time someone seeks public office while dressed as a gannet. Or maybe even when a gannet seeks public office, we frequently do worse. So while we haven't learned as such that the Seagull Screeching Championship judges were especially impressed by Ms. Gronholtz's sportspersonship or sports gullship, whichever we are going to assume that they were, so we can commend her for not Ms. Beavia. Is that anything? Was that a barrel being scraped? Was it well. And we further learned that for the second week running the what we Learned weekly news review on Monocle Radio would have to pivot seamlessly from seabirds to cake from whereas last week it was gannet costume clad office seeker to crown jewels trifle hurlers. You can find it on the website if you missed it. This week it is gull impersonators to record breaking confectioners. We learned that 100 Italian chefs had gathered at Chelsea Town hall in London equipped with 20,000 eggs and 15,000 lady finger biscuits, among other ingredients for the important work of assembling the world's longest tiramisu. Let's have some silly Italian music. We learned that this vital mission had been triumphantly accomplished, the previous mark of 273.5 metres being comprehensively eclipsed by a new record of 440.6 metres. We learned, frankly not for the first time of the acclaim and renown often, if inexplicably enjoyed by those who break one of those world records which is there for the taking for anyone who can be bothered and therefore therefore asked our colleagues to have a bash at this one that is the world's longest tiramisu themselves. Absolutely sure. There is no way they will have misconstrued our instructions. World's longest Tiramisu team. Let's have it.
- [45:08]
UBS Announcer
Tiramisu.
- [45:17]
Andrew Mullen
Outstanding work, everybody. For Monocle Radio, I'm Andrew Mullen.
- [45:24]
Emma Nelson
Thank you, Andrew. And a brand new installment will be with you this time next week right here on Monocle Radio.
- [45:34]
UBS Announcer
Iq, EQ and AI. Three components key to the craft of innovation at ubs. Because to stay ahead in a rapidly evolving age, you need a partner with with decades of experience, endless passion for the work and a finger on the pulse of leading technologies. Bridging human expertise with artificial intelligence, all to elevate you. UBS banking is our craft.
- [46:10]
Emma Nelson
Let's have a roundup now of Eastern and Central European news. Joining us is Julia Jen, who's Monocle's writer and researcher, to have a look at the latest headlines. A very good morning to you, Julia. How are things?
- [46:21]
Julia Jen
Good morning, Emma. Everything's great, thanks.
- [46:23]
Emma Nelson
Good to hear it. Right, so if we could just briefly start by touching on what we've heard before the before the before. Andrew Muller managed to change the tone rather dramatically. Let's touch on the World Press Freedom Index. And we heard from Louise Alain Bichet and the fact that we have Eastern European, Central European countries are suffering. But we do have the likes of Viktor Orban's departure from Hungary, which may brighten things up in terms of the future.
- [46:56]
Julia Jen
Yes, absolutely. And I think, you know, the implementation of national security laws and slaps, those strategic litigation things really pushing countries down there. Although you have to say that if you look on the very third place on the World Press Freedom Index is Estonia, which is fantastic result for the country. And then you continue with other, with other Baltic states, Lithuania, Latvia. And then there was also some positive news as well for Ukraine, which is now actually ahead of Italy, Japan, the U.S. although we can't say much for the U.S. of course, that's plummeted in the rankings. And it's interesting that the index notes that, for example, in Ukraine, one of the things that's worked really well for the country is something as simple as Zelensky. President Zelensky is Now in a WhatsApp group with hundreds of Ukrainian journalists. So such direct communication there. So very varied picture there for Ukraine. But of course pressure in countries like Slovakia, where of course you've got the FICO government really pushing the country down there in the index.
- [48:14]
Emma Nelson
Okay, so we have a sort of a very, very, very mixed patch. Let's move on to a story which is talking about that? Well, we're hearing a lot about the Russian shadow fleet, especially in the likes of the Baltic Sea, exporting oil. But there is a second very, very important product as well, which is. Which appears to be part of this system.
- [48:36]
Julia Jen
Yes. And this is grain. So obviously, you know, Most, even before 2022, most people who would have thought of Ukraine as that phrase, you know, the bread basket of Europe or of the world. And much of the land that Russia has occupied in Ukraine is agricultural land. And one of the sort of trade trades that they're getting out of this war is, is what Ukraine calls stolen grain. So grain that's grown on occupied Ukrainian territory and then shipped abroad to various partners. So we've seen it docking in Turkey, even in Spain at one point in 2023, Syria, for example. And in the last few days, there's been. Or last few weeks even, there's been intense pressure on Israel because an investigation by Harrod, the newspaper there, and found that stolen Ukrainian grain was being. Was docking, was being unloaded in Israel itself. Now, that has been. There was, you know, diplomatic coup on Ukraine's part that grain has now been turned away from Israeli ports. But what this has done is shone a light on this system of stolen grain, this trade system that Russia is carrying out throughout the world. And it's interesting that President Zelensky is comparing the shadow grain sort of fleet to the shadow oil fleet. And we've seen huge diplomatic pressure on the oil shadow fleet. Many news articles from Western and other media outlets across the world tracking those particular ships after Ukraine brought attention to it. And we've even seen shadow oil fleets being boarded by Western troops as it makes its way through the Baltic Sea, for example. So if we see something similar with stolen grain, that would be a huge step up in terms of the cooperation between Ukraine and its partners in clamping down on this trade.
- [50:39]
Emma Nelson
Let's move on to a subject of culture and international diplomacy. Venice Biennale's jury has stepped down because of the fact that Israeli and Russia, Russian artists are able to actually display an exhibit there. This was a huge problem before it started, and it's actually come to an absolute head as the Biennale kicks in.
- [51:06]
Julia Jen
Yes. And again, you know, as a previous story, this has just been going on for weeks and weeks and weeks. So we started with Ukrainians calling out. So on the Russian part, Ukrainians calling out. Who exactly is involved in putting up the Russian, for example, the Russian pavilion. So an investigation by the Ukrainian intelligence agency found that the pavilion commissioner, she is, in fact, deeply embedded in or has personal ties to the Russian military industrial complex. So for example, she's the daughter of a state owned defense company called Rostec and her business partner is actually the daughter of the foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov. So, you know, a woman who is very deeply connected in the sort of Russian system. And then of course, the artists that were being invited also links being found to their active role in propaganda. We've even seen the EU threatening to pull funding. And the Venice Biennale now has 30 days to respond to that about both Russia and Israel's participation. And then, you know, one day before the jury resigned, we had the European Cultural Commissioner saying he would boycott the event entirely and lots of pressure from the Italian government. And so now we're in a situation where the award ceremony has been moved from May 9th all the way to November. And it's unclear what effect this scandal will have really on this art festival, which is such a, you know, it's such an event in the European and really global calendar.
- [52:50]
Emma Nelson
Julia Jenn Monocles, writer and researcher, thank you so much for joining us for a roundup for central and Eastern European news. You're listening to the Globalist. Finally on today's program, Apple has reported its earnings for the second quarter of its 2026 fiscal year. I'm joined now from Palmer by Monocle's tech correspondent, David Phelan. Good morning. How's Palmer looking?
- [53:21]
David Phelan
Good morning. It's quite bright and I'm hoping it's going to be a lovely sunny day.
- [53:25]
Emma Nelson
Excellent. And it seems to be a very lovely sunny day for Apple.
- [53:29]
David Phelan
Yes, I think they should be pretty pleased. It's an interesting time for Apple, as we know. Last week they announced that their CEO Tim Cook was standing down, handing the reins to John Turner, one of their hardware guys. And that will happen in September. So in a way, the fact that the share price went up is an indication that it seems the markets are perfectly happy with, with the change. What they're also happy about is that there have been huge sales of iPhone, a new Mac and big sales in services. Apparently the increases were over 10%, or at least they were in double digit increases in every sector. And in most ways they beat expectations. Apple releases the iPhone in September, so the October to December quarter is always the biggest of the year. That quarter that they announced three months ago was the biggest they've ever had. And this is the biggest ever quarter ending in March that they've ever had.
- [54:33]
Emma Nelson
And it follows on from the biggest ever quarter that they'd had before that yes, that's right.
- [54:39]
David Phelan
They are. You could say they're on a roll.
- [54:42]
Emma Nelson
So tell us. I mean, the reason behind it, I think it's been widely reported, is it's the iPhone 17 family, which is a word that I don't use comfortably, but we all know what it means. Tell us a little bit about just how good the iPhone iPhone 17 is. I mean, it clearly does do the trick. But is it actually just that which has made Apple do so well?
- [55:04]
David Phelan
Well, I think it is. The iPhone 17 series, perhaps we can say, has been hugely successful, especially the 17 Pro and the 17 Pro Max, its most expensive phones. And what's interesting is that every rival manufacturer is stressing more than anything else how brilliant they are at AI. Now, Apple is behind on a. There's big announcements coming next month on that, but it looks like the success of the iPhone 17 series is down to design. And it does have a very attractive design, and it was a new design. And here's the weirdest thing. One of the things that has really stood out is color. There's a new iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max, which comes in a color called cosmic orange. Get past the name. And it is a beautiful color, and it's done very, very well, especially in territories like China, where sales have been especially good.
- [56:06]
Emma Nelson
Is it. I mean, would David Phelan be producing a cosmic orange iPhone 17 from his back pocket?
- [56:12]
David Phelan
You bet. Yes. No, I love it. I think it looks really great. In fact, I almost wish I didn't have a case on my phone, but, you know, these phones are expensive, so I want to protect it, but. Because then you'd see it all the more clearly. What will be interesting is that they won't continue almost certainly that color when they release the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max later in the year.
- [56:34]
Emma Nelson
Okay, let's talk about the. You know, obviously it's all sunlit uplands for Apple, but are there any concerns? People seem to be quite happy with the announcement of John Turner as the next head, but are there any other things that people need to worry about?
- [56:50]
David Phelan
Well, I think AI is the big thing that everyone is saying they're behind on AI, and although Apple was able to prove with the announcements of the phones last September that actually regular people aren't so bothered about AI as companies are, as. As manufacturers are, they still don't. They can't be left behind. Now, next month, on June 8, Apple has its worldwide developers conference, and then they will announce the software that will go live in September. And it's believed that that is going to have a major focus on with crucially the new Siri that was announced two years ago almost, but still hasn't come to fruition, which will be be able to do lots of things that you've never been able to do with any phone from any brand before, including they may even made a commercial saying that it would do this. But they've had to withdraw that commercial. But I'm sure it will come back that if you suddenly see someone you can't remember their name, you say to Siri, who's that guy I met for a coffee two months ago? It is instantly able to go through your calendar and say, oh, that's so and so. And you can greet them with their name as though they were an old friend.
- [58:07]
Emma Nelson
I think that is literally the one thing I'd be using all day. I mean, when you do that and you pop on the Ray Ban glasses, which are not Apple, what kind of person does that turn you into?
- [58:15]
David Phelan
David well, yes, a little bit geeky, you're right. But also one of the reasons that I think investors are eager to think that Apple is going to do well is that there's going to be a bunch of new products, products including a version of those Ray Ban glasses that you've just alluded to. It's thought wonderful.
- [58:34]
Emma Nelson
Monocle's tech correspondent David Phelan joining me on the line from Palmer Mallorca. Thank you so much. And that's all the time we have for today's program. The warmest of thanks to all my guests and to the producers, Angelica Jopson, Tom Webb and Hassan Anderson. Our researchers are Josefina Gomez and our studio manager was Christy o' Grady with editing assistance from Mariella Bevan. After the the headlines. More music on the way. The briefing's live at midday here in London. The Globalist is back at the same time on Monday. I hope you can join me for that if you can. But for now from me, Emma Nelson, goodbye. Thank you very much for listening and have a good weekend.
- [59:38]
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